Ashley's
anencephalic Story

I am not sure when we decided on the name for our little girl.  I believe that we had several picked out for a boy or a girl.  I think that we decided before we found out that she was anencephalic.  We decided on the name Ashley Nicole Lubbert.

Finally, the time came for our birthing class.  We arrived at her house and after meeting some of her family went down into the basement.  She told us that normally this was a 8 to 9 week course that she puts on.  She had shortened it to a one night course for us so that we wouldn’t have to come back.

She went over the basics of child birth.  She gave us some helpful hints on what to bring to the hospital, what positions to be in etc.  The biggest thing that was that there was a spiritual atmosphere to the whole class.  She went over how God created us in the very beginning and how he continues to create little ones today.  We all had a hard time looking at each other because we didn’t want to start crying.  She would look at me most of the time, because Pam had tears in her eyes.  But it was wonderful and was such a wonderful, peaceful and renewing experience.

After the class was over, we talked for quite a while about how Ashley was progressing and what had happened up until that point.  We also said that we would call her when we got to the hospital so that she could come up to the room and see Ashley.  She wanted to make sure that we did.

From time to time she would call us just to check and see how everything was going.  Those calls really meant a lot to us.  They let us know that people had not forgot and were thinking and praying for us.  We remain friends even after the experience with Ashley was over.